This past weekend my mind, my body & my heart were blown WIDE OPEN by the beauty & bliss that is the Victoria Yoga Conference. I attended 8 amazing workshops with 8 different leaders, teachers & gurus and fully engulfed myself in the goodness that they were offering to me.

I learned how to cultivate bliss through Tantric yoga movements, access my higher intuition through the fluid motion of dance, stand upside down while being 100% supported below by a complete stranger, activate the healing potential of my Mala Necklace through Japa Meditation and grind my own spices while chanting a beautiful healing mantra to nourish my body from the inside out.

Wow! It was absolutely amazing!

I did a live facebook video in my private community; Holistic, Happy & Healthy and did a complete ramble of goodness all about the conference…but for your reading sake, I thought I would narrow down my experience to 3 major takeaways.

#1 – Ayurvedic Medicine

I had the absolute privilege to be led through workshopswith both Gylnnis Osher and Melanie Madhuri Phillips, Ayurvedic Practitioners. Glynnis led us through an awakening Spice Shakti experience of grinding our own spices while chanting a healing mantra with each and every grind. There were 30 of us in the room and all of us took a turn grinding these seeds down into powder to then be combined and shared amongst the entire group. The focus of this practice was to bring out the natural healing nature of each of the seeds, while infusing them with intentional vibrations of love and healing; a practice of ancient Ayurvedic Medicine.

Then in my workshop with Melanie, we discussed the need for yoga teachers and all healers to honour their own body’s natural rhythm, eating, sleeping and living in a way that activates healing potential. We discussed the three doshas of Ayurvedic Medicine and how these natural characteristics play a strong role in creating a lifestyle that supports our individual needs.

Ayurvedic Medicine is a beautiful ancient healing system that was developed over 3000 years ago in India. It was used before today’s modern technology and science to heal patients from all ailments, including simple daily pains like digestive troubles, elimination inconsistencies, sleep disruption and unbalanced energy levels.

Since my program through Integrative Nutrition, I have been intrigued and curious about the healing nature of Ayurveda. It incorporates so many concepts of Holistic Health that I practice daily with myself and encourage for my coaching clients. And so for this reason, I am committing to pursuing Ayurveda further and better understanding how I can utilize this ancient healing system to support you and every one of my clients.

#2 Dance & Movement as Meditation

Meditation has always been something that I know I need more of. Hearing stories of my aunt and her meditation group taking a weekend to meditate together for the greater good of humanity…well, that’s damn inspiring! And knowing that through meditation I can access my own higher power, my intuition and speak from a place of purity and truth…well that’s pretty damn motivating as well! But the challenge I have always faced is the art of sitting still. I am a busy body; my mind has always been a highly functioning chaotic stream of new ideas & plans that is incredibly challenging to make shut up!

So when I attended Alice Bracegirdle’s Bellyfit Flow class at 8am on Sunday morning and she shared with us the essence of Bellyfit…I was activated!Yoga was created long ago for men to be flexible enough in their physical bodies to sit for extended periods of time in meditation to connect to their higher power. The operative word there being, Men. In the words of Alice, Bellyfit was created to honour and respect the natural rhythm and movement within a woman’s body, allowing for softness, fluidity, movement and DANCE. This is how a woman can naturally connect deeply to her own natural healing potential and access her higher power.

BAM – Deanna wants to meditate, Deanna needs to dance!

And I’ve known this for some time, but I’ve ignored the potency within the understanding. I often will sit in meditation with candles lit and music playing, only to begin circling on my hips, rolling my shoulders front and back and ultimately beginning a naturally-led seated dance. This is my body’s way of telling me that to get out of my head, I need to get into my body.

VOILA! The answer to my question of how to meditate more & access that higher power…make more space for fluid movement & dance.

#3 Physical Limitations

In 2.5 months I will turn 30 years old. I am ecstatic about this! I cannot WAIT to see what my 30’s hold for me. This path that I am on feels completely connected, real and honest with my purpose for being on this planet. I am finally…after years of searching, fulfilling my soul’s purpose.

One thing that can come with turning another year older, is physical limitations that you are not accustomed to. The first day of the yoga conference I attended 5 workshops & classes…each 1.5 hours long! That’s 7.5 hours of intensive movement, education, learning, experience & openness. Wow! That’s a lot. And I’m the type who gives my ALL to each and every workshop I attend. So needless to say…I was bit exhausted after Day 1; physically, mentally & emotionally.

But what I learned in this experience was the art of yin; softness, quiet, receptivity, and calm. This has always been an element of my yoga practice that I gently ignore…as I often seek the challenge, the physical growth and the beautiful yoga burn.

So in this honouring of my soft & gentle side, I respected my body’s physical limitations and attended only three classes on Sunday. I took time to rest in the beautiful marketplace, had a cup of tea while sitting in the February sunshine, chatted with friends; new & old, and just took in all the goodness that was available outside of the scheduled workshops.

Just as there is beauty in the pause between your inhale & exhale, there is beauty in the gentle pauses of life. By taking time to listen to my body, I had intimate & heartfelt conversations that were not accessible in a 30+ person workshop. I honoured my physical limitations with great respect and continued to give my all to every workshop I attended.

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